ep in instead of me, but I'm not
wrong now. You can take it from me she'll marry you in the end. She's
young; be patient. I dare say she'll think for a time she's had enough,
but she hasn't. There's no good living a lonely life. We may both get
done in, of course. But I don't fancy we shall. I want you to promise me
not to get killed if you can help it.

"Keep away from me if you think I'm getting into trouble, because I
sha'n't be getting into trouble, I shall be getting out of it, d'you
see?"

The guns sounded nearer, a machine gun rattled sharply in their ears, as
if it had been let off in their dug-out.

"I sha'n't care for anybody else," said Lionel, quietly, "and I shall
wait all my life for her. As for not being killed--you don't want me to
shirk my job, of course; bar that, I sha'n't ask for trouble."

Winn said, "All right--then that's that! I'm going to sleep."

They neither of them slept.

It came very quickly and confusedly toward dawn. The silence was rent
across like a piece of torn silk. The crash of bombs, the peppery, sharp
detonation of rifles broke up the sullen air. Out of the dark, vague
shapes loomed, the trench filled with the sound of deep breathing and
scuffling, and the shriek of sudden pain.

Death and mud and darkness closed together.

It was all over in half an hour, the attack was driven out, and the men
moved uncertainly about, trying to discover their dead, and relieve
their wounded.

The dawn was gray and in the half light, Winn saw Lionel's eyes open and
shut; the blood was pouring from a hideous wound in his side.

"You've got to live," Winn said grimly, bending over him. "No damned
nonsense about it! You've got to live." Lionel's eyes closed again and
he knew nothing more of the rough bandaging, the endless waiting in the
sodden trench while Winn sat motionless beside him, watching his
flickering breath. In the hours of the interminable journey, Lionel
roused himself sometimes and heard again like a perpetual refrain,
"You've got to live." The motor ambulance jarred and bumped it, the
wheels of the train echoed it through the fever in his brain. He woke in
England knowing that he was going to live.

[Illustration: "You've got to live," said Winn, bending grimly over him;
"You've got to live!"]

A few hours later Winn went to see the general of his division. "I want
you to let me have another twenty-four in, sir," he explained. "They
won't expect an attack so soon. I kno